Anne & Betty: United By The Struggle

by Anne Scargill, Betty Cook, Ian Clayton (Preface)

Anne Scargill and Betty Cook met at the beginning of the miners' strike. Betty was a proud miner's daughter, wife and mother, who was determined to support her family and community. Anne happened to be married to Arthur Scargill, the president of the miners' union. She too was steeped in the history of coalfield culture. Together they helped to create perhaps the greatest thing to come out of the strike, the Women Against Pit Closures movement. Inspired by the working-class values that raised them, they put their arms around those who needed support, fed the hungry, and stood firm against those whose intent was to destroy their way of life. Once the strike was over, through education and direct action, they stepped over the threshold to support working people in struggle both at home and abroad, changing not only the direction of their own lives, but many other women too. Here for the first time in print, Anne and Betty tell their own story in their own voices. Told with humour and conviction, this is an indispensable slice of social history. It reveals the vitality of two remarkable women who possess the strength and resolve to stand up for what they believe in and how, no matter what, they never give in.

217 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 9, 2020

Reviews

[Billie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very honest and interesting recount of the lives of two women involved in the 1984/5 miners’ strike. My favourite book on the topic, telling the stories of real lives and emotions.

[Felicity · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite following the media coverage at the time, I was unaware of the active role of the various women's formal and informal organisations in sustaining the miners' strike with a great deal more than the tea-and-sympathy that was usually portrayed. While Anne Scargill was a household name simply by being married to the much maligned Arthur, the bête noire of the Tory press, Betty Cook seemed not to attract or deflect similarly vicarious abuse. This joint memoir, based on a series of recordings with the two women simultaneously, presents their side of the story. It's an engaging record of both women's political and personal development, spontaneous and home-grown activism, and their respective friendships and alliances extending far beyond their own communities. Their support for the strike never buckled under the strain; interestingly, both marriages did. Unlike academic studies of popular protest movements, Anne and Betty's account is mercifully jargon-free, unrestricted by political orthodoxy, wonderfully witty and utterly disarming. Perhaps this is why the copy I borrowed from the university library had not been loaned before. I read it in one sitting, a feat rarely achieved with such pleasure since childhood.